56th Street #2, Birmingham, AL

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 6-27-19*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights.
Signal on the right: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights, 1 pair of Safetran 12x20 inch lights, and a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell.

This crossing is a very nice one. It features a pair of 1980s gateless NS signals that appear to have been installed to replace a pair of older SOU signals and haven't had too many changes over the years. At some point in the late-1990s/very early 2000s, NS replaced the original Safetran mechanical bell on the closer signal with the current GS Type 1, which is rather nice to see at a gateless crossing like this. The crossing then remained unchanged until between 2012 and 2015, when the right-hand signal got struck and had two of the original 12x24 inch lights replaced with the current 12x20 inch lights.
It appears the right-hand signal gets hit every so often, as several times that I've seen the signal, at least one of the lights was slightly out of alignment. In fact, not too long after I shot this video, the rear 12x20 inch light was at a slight angle again.
This crossing is very wide, as you can see, and there's a good reason for that, as it's located on what's technically two different mainlines. The farther pair of tracks is the NS AGS South mainline and carries most of the traffic heading in and out of the west side of Irondale. The closer track is the also technically part of the NS AGS South (IIRC), but sees much less use and, according to the FRA, is called the "NS East End Branch" while railfans typically refer to it as the Passenger Main, as Amtrak (as well as other trains avoiding Norris Yard) take it.

[freebrickproductions]

*originally recorded on 10-10-21*

Signal on the left: 2 pairs of Safetran 12x24 inch lights.
Signal on the right: 3 pairs of Safetran 12x20 inch lights and a General Signals Type 1 electronic bell.

After catching the eastbound intermodal with KCS power, we saw that there was another one coming, so we went over to this crossing to record it. Here we got our third catch of the day: another eastbound NS intermodal train with a pair of KCS SD70ACes for power!

As you can see, since I last recorded this crossing, NS has replaced the remaining 12x24s on the closer signal with 12x20s. Other than that though, thankfully nothing has changed to this crossing, and the GS Type 1 e-bell is still here. This is honestly still a rather nice crossing, so I'm glad I got it recorded.

http://www.rxrsignals.com/Alabama/A-F/Birmingham/56_2/